Radical Connector (SP2 CTP2 is Released!)

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I'm very excited to let you know that you can get your hands on the first CTP for SQL Server 2005 Service Pack 2. This release will enable you to start testing a few new features for Reporting Services, including:

  • Hyperion Essbase Provider and Query Designer
  • Oracle Support for Report Builder

The release also contains support for Windows Vista (RC1). The final version of SP2 will contain support for the released version of Vista.

Most importantly, SP2 contains new integration with Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 and Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007. I will be blogging on this frequently over the next few weeks as it is a very significant set of work that you will want to evaluate if your company is planning on adopting the soon to-be-released Office System servers. In a nutshell, the add-in lets you to take advantage of SQL Server Reporting Services report processing and management capabilities from within a SharePoint deployment.

Once you configure your SP2 report server for SharePoint integrated mode and configure the add-in for your SharePoint deployment, you get the ability to view and manage reports published directly to SharePoint document libraries. All security is managed within the SharePoint permission model. There is also a new delivery extension that you can use in subscriptions to deliver rendered reports to SharePoint libraries.

Just a warning about the CTP - although the release is very stable, as with any pre-release software you should use it exclusively in a test environment. This is especially true with the SharePoint integration add-in as we will not be providing an upgrade to the final release for this component.